What She Meant
by WallflowerWriter99
Summary: "After all these years with her, you can't expect me to walk away from it without being changed a little bit. To be completely honest, she changed all of us and she taught us a lot," Pepper's point-of-view of the 1999 movie and the play. This will probably go deeper into the character's back stories and what happens after the play ends.


**Author's Note:** As I was listening to the Annie soundtrack tonight, I got an urge to write a fanfiction and this was created. Please tell me what you think! If you want me to continue, please tell me. Please review with any suggestions or compliments. Thanks!

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After all this time in the orphanage with Annie, seven long years, you can't honestly expect me to walk away unchanged. Most everyone sees me the same: a cold heartless, person who doesn't care for anyone else and it might be true, but if I cared for everyone in this hellhole, it would be like loosing a sister every time one of us got adopted.

That being said, I can't help but having some kind of empathy for the ones I room with, especially since we all share our problems with each other. Take Duffy for example. We've both been here for the same amount of time and she's only three months my junior, so we share everything with each other. She knows about my mom's grim death and my dad's subsequent suicide and I know about her parents' fatal car crash. Annie, she just tells her entire life story to anyone who has working ears, but the other girls only share with the people they trust.

It has to be at least two A.M now and I can't fall asleep. I know the eight year anniversary of my dad's suicide is coming up soon and I can't get my mind off that. As I'm finally starting to drift off, Molly cries out for her dead mother. As much as I know that I shouldn't be so rude to her, it still bothers me to no end. I never signed up for a lack of sleep due to other kids missing their parents. It wouldn't be so bad if it was every once in awhile, but Molly has nightmares every single night.

"Molly! Shut up!" I say exasperatedly as I hear Duffy sigh in the bed next to me.

"Can't anybody get any sleep around here?" She grumbles.

"Mama, Mommy!" Molly cries out again and I get even more exasperated due to both lack of sleep and the fact that she actually knew her mother. I never got that luxury.

"I _said_shut your trap, Molly!" I say, shoving Molly out of bed and onto the floor. She lands with a thud and July hops up, standing atop her bed.

"Hey, stop shovin' the poor kid. She ain't doin' nothin' to you," She says and I roll my eyes. Of course, I'm the one being yelled at when Molly's the one who's keeping us up.

"She's keepin' me awake, ain't she?" I ask.

"No," July counters, "you're keeping _us _awake,"

"You wanna make somethin' out of it, July?" I ask, standing up, expecting this to be the last of our argument. To my surprise, though, she decides to keep at it.

"How 'bout I make a pancake outta you?" She replies and the two of us get into a fist fight, with all the other girls cheering us on. That is, until Annie comes in (why she wasn't trying to sleep like a normal person is beyond me) and breaks up our fight.

"Pipe down, all of you! Do you want Miss Hannigan to come in here? Go back to bed," She says and July cowers away, heading back to her bed while I take the chance to glare at Annie.

"Whatever," I say as I head back to my bed and attempt to get comfortable again. Annie goes over to comfort Molly. She helps her up to her feet and Molly tells Annie about her dream.

"It was my mama, Annie. We was riding on a ferry boat ad she was holdin' me up to see all the ships and then she was walkin' away and I couldn't find her no more," Molly says and Annie pulls her handkerchief out of her pocket, handing it to Molly.

"Blow," she instructs and Molly complies.

"It was only a dream, honey. Now, you gotta go back to sleep. It's after three,"

Damn, it's seriously that late? Miss Hannigan will be in here in just a few hours to wake us up. I sigh and turn on my side, expecting Molly to shut up and go to sleep now that Annie's at her side, but of course, she doesn't.

"Annie, read me your note," she requests and Annie sighs softly.

"Again?" She asks with a slightness of irritation in her voice.

"Please?" Molly says.

"Sure, Molly," Annie says and I groan.

"Here it comes again," I mumble uder my breath. Annie reads her note a total of three times a week on average. I, and everyone else, kow all the words by heart.

"'Please take good care of our little darling. Her name is Annie," Annie begins before Duffy cuts her off mockingly.

"She was born on October the twenty eighth. We will be back to get her soon. "

Agh, I can't help but get in the mocking. "We've left half of a silver locket around her neck and kept the other half," I join in.

"...so that when we come back you will know that she's our _baby_," Duffy and Kate say, joining me as we finish the note, laughing.

"Oh my goodness, now they're laughing," Tessie says and Annie leaves her position next to Molly.

"All right. Do you wanna sleep with your teeth inside your mouth or _out?_" She says and that gets us all to shut up. She may be a scrawny little redhead, but the kid can pack a punch. She smiles, satisfied and goes back to Molly.

"Gee, Annie, I dream about havin' a mother and father again. But you're lucky. You really got 'em," Molly says and Annie sighs.

"I know. Somewhere. Somewhere," she says and starts to sing about what her parents could be like. To be completely honest, I don't think her parents are alive anymore. She's almost twelve years old and she's been here her whole life. Either her parents forgot about her or they're dead. We all begin to drift off to sleep but soon after the church bells ring four, I hear a clattering about and I know it isn't the damn wind again.

"_Now _what?" I grumble, opening my eyes and see Annie gathering her very few belongings.

"Annie, whattya doin'?" Duffy asks, sounding as annoyed as I feel.

"Runnin' away," Annie replies dryly, almost as if someone was asking her what color the sky was.

"Oh, my goodness," Tessie says and July grabs her arm.

"Annie, you're crazy. Miss Hannigan's gonna catch you," she says and Annie shrugs away, pulling on her thin sweater.

"And lock you in the cellar," Kate adds.

"I don't care. My folks are never coming for me. I gotta find 'em," Annie picks up her old wicker basket and sighs. "All right, I'm leaving now. Wish me luck," she says.

"Good luck," everyone choruses, except me. She's so dumb. There's no way she'll get away with this.

"So long, dumbbell. And...good luck," I say and Annie gets up to leave the dormitory. The second she opens the door, Miss Hannigan appears in the doorway.

"Ah, I heard ya, ya brat! I _always _hear ya!" She says, flinging Annie to the floor. All the rest of us groan, trying to look as if we're still asleep. She comes over and flings off Duffy's covers.

"Now, for _this _one's shenanigans, you're all going to clean this dump until it shines like the top of the Chrysler building!" Hannigan commands and we all get up, groaning.

Another rude awakening, courtesy of Annie.


End file.
